Anantapur is one of the most frequently drought affected and largest groundnut sowing district in Andhra Pradesh. Groundnut+ pigeonpea intercropping is the major cropping system during kharif. Generally the crop is affected by  dry spells and late leaf spot causing considerable reduction in yield. Increased cost of cultivation and lack of knowledge on timely management of LLS are main reasons for low net returns.

 To overcome all these constraints KVK has introduced cost reduction technologies to reduce unnecessary chemical fertilizer and pesticide sprays, sowing groundnut with automatic planter, apply  fertilizers  based on soil tests ,  use of their own seed. Late leaf spot is another biotic constraint which affects the pod & fodders yield of groundnut. Keeping   this in view, key interventions were demonstrated to reduce cost of cultivation & thereby increasing the net returns.

This village chakrayapeta is one of the four  cluster villages and  is located at a distance of 17km from KVK & 25km from Anantapur town. Majority of soils in the village are low in nitrogen, medium to high in P₂O₅ & K₂O .   

Mechanized spray of fungicide

To reduce the cost of cultivation, demonstrations on soil test based fertilizer application were taken up in farmers fields. In 5 ha, demonstration with automatic groundnut planter was taken up where the time taken for sowing and seed rate was reduced to 25 kg/ha. The farmers could reduce nearly Rs 4830/ha on cost of fertilizers, seed cost and seed drill.

Demonstration on management of late leaf spot in groundnut was taken up in the village by using boom sprayer were the farmers benefited by effective control of the LLS. Crop diversification with  Pigeon pea castor and foxtail millet were introduced as  alternate to  groundnut crop.